Friday, February 01, 2013

The Source March 1995 issue (and Fat Tape) featuring Slick Rick (RE-UP)


I've been meaning to discuss my Bay Area hip-hop theory for years now and this issue gives me the perfect opportunity to briefly do so. For some reason, the Bay Area seems to have literally every form and version of hip-hop in existence. I told my wife a long time ago that no other area, not even New York, can boast the diversity of hip-hop that resides in that area. Too Short, Tupac, Digital Underground, E-40, The Coup, Paris, The Luniz, Hieroglyphics (Del, Casual, and Souls of Mischief), Mac Mall, The Conscious Daughters, Mac Dre, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, and on and on. Does Planet Asia count, too? I’m sure they even have some LGBT hip-hop artists in that area as well. It’s like they can go from the raunchiest most ignorant hip-hop to the conscious political hip-hop to the raw, off the dome hip-hop to the strictly hardcore DJ hip-hop. The Bay Area has so much hip-hop talent and I’ve always envied them for that. Anyway, that brings me to this particular issue. On page 25, they posted some info on a rap battle between Casual and Saafir. I haven’t seen a rap battle in person for years so it surprised me to re-read about one in this issue. Consider that most “signed” artists today refuse to battle one another for fear of losing whatever YouTube credibility they may have from 14 year old kids and for obvious lack of skills. I mean, I can’t even think of two "mainstream" artists today I’d like to see battle right now who are 30 years of age and under. Imagine weak rappers like Soulja Boy and Gucci Mane threatening to a have a rap battle.  I'd have to hide under a rock.  Anyway, this issue really took me back in time so check it out.


One more thing.  Big L's debut album got 4 mics in the record review section.  Was that too high, too low, or just right?


The Fat Tape is included...
pw=thimk

Oh yeah, here's a battle that I thoroughly enjoyed.





~Vincent~